Vivo Philippines Brings Scotty Pippen Jr. and Scottie Thompson Together for Exclusive Fan Meet-and-Greet

MANILA, Philippines – Basketball fans in the Philippines are in for a special treat as Vivo Philippines prepares to host an exclusive meet-and-greet featuring Memphis Grizzlies guard Scotty Pippen Jr. and PBA Most Valuable Player and Gilas Pilipinas star Scottie Thompson. The highly anticipated event will take place on July 30 from 5:00 PM to 6:00 PM at the Vivo Concept Store in SM Megamall, marking the first time the brand has brought together an NBA player and a PBA standout for a single fan experience.

The event promises an exciting afternoon filled with basketball stories, interactive on-stage conversations, fan engagement activities, and exclusive opportunities for attendees to meet both athletes in person. By bringing together two accomplished point guards from different levels of professional basketball, Vivo aims to celebrate the sport's ability to unite communities and inspire fans.

"Basketball has always been one of the strongest passions shared by Filipinos, and we're excited to bring together two athletes whose journeys resonate with fans in different ways," said Liu Lu, Brand Marketing Director of Vivo Philippines.

"This event is about giving fans a chance to connect with the game they love through meaningful experiences while celebrating the spirit of basketball that unites communities around the world," she added.

To make the experience accessible to more fans, Vivo Philippines is giving basketball enthusiasts the chance to win exclusive access to the meet-and-greet. Lucky winners will receive a signed event poster and the opportunity to personally meet Scotty Pippen Jr. and Scottie Thompson at the Vivo Concept Store.

Joining the giveaway is simple. Fans only need to follow Vivo Philippines on Facebook, comment "Vivo Meet & Greet with Scotty" on the official Facebook post, and include the hashtags #vivoxNBA, #ScottyPippenJrinManila2026, and #vivoX300Ultra.

Fans who cannot attend the event in person won't have to miss out. Vivo Philippines will livestream the event on its official Facebook page on July 31 from 5:00 PM to 6:00 PM. During the livestream, viewers can also participate in a separate giveaway for a chance to win exclusive NBA merchandise by commenting "Vivo Meet & Greet with Scotty" and using the same official hashtags.

The event will also showcase the Vivo X300 Ultra, the company's flagship smartphone featuring Triple ZEISS Master Lenses, designed to capture everything from fast-paced sporting action to stunning portraits and everyday moments with exceptional clarity.

Whether attending in person or tuning in online, basketball fans can look forward to an unforgettable celebration of the game while connecting with two athletes who continue to inspire fans both locally and internationally. For more updates and announcements, follow Vivo Philippines on its official social media channels.

LG and Imperial Appliance Plaza Bring Laundry Love to Earthquake-Affected Families in General Santos City

In times of disaster, even simple daily tasks can become major challenges. Recognizing this need, LG Electronics, in partnership with Imperial Appliance Plaza, brought comfort and practical assistance to families affected by the recent earthquake in General Santos City through its Laundry Love community initiative.

The five-day activation took place from July 13 to 17 at the Barangay Hall in Purok Estrella, Barangay Calumpang, where residents were given free access to LG's advanced washing machines and dryers. The initiative aimed to help families focus on rebuilding their lives by easing one of the most essential household responsibilities—laundry.

Over the course of the program, 310 families benefited from the service, with approximately 2,544 kilograms of laundry washed and dried free of charge. For many affected residents, the program provided more than clean clothes—it offered convenience, dignity, and a sense of normalcy during a difficult period of recovery.

Laundry often becomes a secondary concern following natural disasters, as families prioritize food, shelter, and safety. However, access to clean clothing and linens plays a significant role in maintaining hygiene, preventing illness, and improving overall well-being. Through Laundry Love, LG addressed this overlooked need while demonstrating how technology can make a meaningful difference in local communities.

The initiative showcased LG's commitment to using innovation beyond the home. By making its high-performance washing and drying technologies available in shared community spaces, the company ensures that its products serve not only consumers but also communities facing unexpected hardships. The partnership with Imperial Appliance Plaza further strengthened the effort, enabling the program to reach more families efficiently.

Residents expressed gratitude for the support, highlighting how the free laundry service helped reduce both financial and emotional stress during the recovery process. Instead of worrying about finding laundry facilities or spending limited resources on washing clothes, families were able to focus on restoring their homes and caring for loved ones.

The success of Laundry Love in General Santos City demonstrates the importance of collaboration between private companies and local communities during times of crisis. Programs like these show that corporate social responsibility extends beyond donations, creating direct and meaningful impact where it is needed most.

As communities continue their journey toward recovery, initiatives such as Laundry Love serve as reminders that compassion, innovation, and community partnerships can make everyday challenges easier to overcome. Through thoughtful programs that address practical needs, LG and Imperial Appliance Plaza continue to prove that technology can be a powerful force for hope, resilience, and positive change.

Alsons Dev, Khan Academy Bring Personalized Digital Learning to Davao Public Schools

Alsons Development and Investment Corporation (Alsons Dev) is expanding access to technology-enabled learning through its partnership with Khan Academy Philippines under the Department of Education's (DepEd) Adopt-a-School Program, providing public elementary schools in Davao City with digital learning tools, internet connectivity, and teacher support to enhance classroom learning.

The initiative was officially launched through a series of Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) and Deed of Donation signings held at Tugbok Central Elementary School on July 14, 2026, followed by signings at T. Awad Echevarria Elementary School and Paradise Embac Elementary School on July 15, 2026. The ceremonies brought together representatives from Alsons Dev, the Conrado and Ladislawa Alcantara Foundation, Inc., Khan Academy Philippines, DepEd Region XI, local government units, as well as school administrators. A total of 128 tablets were formally turned over to the three beneficiary schools, followed by demonstrations of the Khan Academy platform.

More than providing devices, Alsons Dev is also funding three years of internet connectivity, teacher training, and implementation support, ensuring partner schools have the resources and guidance needed to effectively integrate the Khan Academy platform into classroom instruction.

Khan Academy Philippines President and CEO, Atty. Geraldine Acuña-Sunshine, emphasized the importance of partnerships in expanding access to quality education, "At Khan Academy Philippines, we believe every learner deserves access to quality education, regardless of circumstance. While we provide free learning resources, support from private organizations like Alsons Dev plays a vital role in helping schools overcome barriers to implementation and create more opportunities for students to reach their full potential."

Through Khan Academy's personalized online learning platform, students gain free access to instructional videos and practice exercises in Math, Science, and English, with lessons aligned to the DepEd curriculum. Teachers and school administrators can also monitor student progress through a built-in dashboard.

"We believe education creates opportunities that shape a young person's future. Through this partnership, we hope to strengthen learning in our public schools by giving students access to the tools and resources they need to learn, grow, and pursue their aspirations. By investing in young learners today, we are helping build stronger communities for generations to come," said Alsons Dev President and CEO Miguel Rene A. Dominguez.

The three-year initiative marks the beginning of a long-term effort to make digital learning more accessible and engaging in public schools. It reflects Alsons Dev's commitment to enriching lives by creating opportunities for people and communities to thrive.

For more information on Alsons Dev’s community initiatives, visit www.alsonsdev.com.

Globe, KDDI Partner to Explore Growth Opportunities in Mobile and Transform Retail Experience in the Philippines

Globe has entered into a strategic partnership with KDDI Corporation, one of Japan’s leading telecommunications and digital services companies, to explore new growth opportunities in mobile services and retail experience transformation in the Philippines.

The partnership marks a new chapter in Globe’s customer experience journey. Two years after rationalizing parts of its physical retail footprint as more customers shifted to digital channels, Globe is now looking ahead: not simply to reopen or expand stores, but to reinvent what the retail experience can become in a more digital, connected, and customer-led era.

"Globe has always believed that growth goes hand in hand with elevating our overall customer experience philosophy,” said Carl Cruz, President and CEO of Globe. “This strategic partnership with KDDI allows us to learn from one of the world’s most advanced telco and digital ecosystems, while bringing Globe’s deep understanding of the Filipino customer to the table. Together, we aim to explore new ways to make mobile services more relevant, retail experiences more seamless, and digital solutions more responsive to the evolving needs of Filipinos. As we look toward 2027 and beyond, our goal is to create value that goes beyond connectivity and helps build a stronger, more inclusive digital ecosystem for the country."

Through the collaboration, Globe and KDDI will explore how KDDI’s experience in Japan, including recurring revenue models that connect telecommunications with financial, entertainment, lifestyle, and other digital services, can complement Globe’s scale, market reach, and established customer relationships across its broad mobile base of approximately 67 million customers.

As an initial step, Globe and KDDI are jointly exploring an initiative to expand Globe’s retail footprint and innovate on its retail experience. The effort seeks to reimagine how stores can serve customers in a market where digital adoption continues to accelerate, but where human connection, guidance, and trusted support remain essential.

For Globe, the partnership is disruptive as it transforms ways for customers to experience the brand and build a digital ecosystem that delivers greater value, convenience, and care. This direction aligns with the company’s broader brand repositioning as a company focused not only on connectivity, but on creating more meaningful, integrated, and empowering experiences for customers.

Instructure Announces Project Athena, an AI Study Coach Designed to Deliver In-Context Learning through Canvas

SALT LAKE CITY— Instructure, the leading learning ecosystem and maker of Canvas LMS, today introduced Project Athena, currently under development as part of Instructure Foundry, Instructure’s new venture dedicated to innovation. Project Athena is an AI study coach that integrates with Canvas to help students study more effectively. Once launched, Athena will provide personalized support that coaches students toward skill mastery and understanding, utilizing feedback from students and educators grounded in learning science. Project Athena is being designed to use course materials, assignments, and information about upcoming assessments, available through the student’s account, to generate personalized quizzes, study guides, and coaching prompts aligned with course learning objectives.

As institutions work to improve engagement, many struggle to provide personalized study support at scale. Educators and students increasingly turn to AI tutoring to address this need. Yet most AI tutoring tools have a critical gap: they generate explanations without the context of what students are actually learning and require students to find, organize, and upload course materials themselves. Project Athena is intended to address that context gap by connecting study support to the Canvas content students are expected to learn.

Research from the Fordham Institute shows that instructionally aligned tutoring, when connected to what students are actually learning in their courses, produces measurable improvements in student outcomes. Athena will apply this learning science principle by connecting AI-powered study support to course context available through each student’s Canvas account. Athena’s quiz, study guide, and coaching prompts are designed to align with the specific material students are expected to master.
Designed to support educator confidence

Consistent with its philosophy of collaborative product design, Instructure is co-creating Project Athena alongside its customers. As one example of institutional partnership, Hinds Community College, the largest community college in Mississippi, will provide Athena to all 7,000 of its students this fall after a successful pilot this spring.

“Office hours and a tutoring center can only stretch so far. We wanted every student to have support whenever they needed it,” said Brandon Mitchell, Director of Instructional Design and Technology at Hinds College. “If that keeps even a fraction of our 7,000 students in a course they might have dropped, that's a completion and retention impact we can't ignore.”

Student feedback gathered during the project’s development has indicated that instructor support influenced students' comfort with using an AI-enabled study tool. Instructure is using that feedback to shape an experience focused on course materials, learning objectives, and study practices intended to strengthen understanding. The approach will give educators greater clarity about the tool's purpose and give students clearer expectations, while supporting institutional guidelines for responsible AI use.

“Project Athena represents what we believe responsible AI in education should look like: grounded in learning science, connected to the learning environment and built to support understanding through skill mastery,” said Shiren Vijiasingam, chief product officer at Instructure. “It will use the Canvas course context available to each student to focus personalized study support on what they are learning. Project Athena will coach toward mastery, not answers, and is being designed around student data privacy and responsible use.”

Study support grounded in Canvas course context

• Project Athena connects to a student’s Canvas account and uses information available through the student’s existing Canvas permissions, including course materials, assignments and upcoming assessments.
• It generates quizzes, study guides and coaching prompts. This allows the study experience to reflect the content and deadlines associated with each course while keeping support grounded in the material chosen by educators.
• Project Athena will use a mastery model that prioritizes understanding and skill development over assignment completion. It will track confidence and identify areas where students need additional support, pulling relevant questions and materials from Canvas and student uploads while continuously adapting difficulty to match what students already know. Students will be able to upload handwritten notes or curriculum content, and Athena will ground its guidance in course context, with an emphasis on content mastery.

Privacy by design is core to Instructure's AI governance, and Project Athena reflects this commitment. Student conversations are never used to train external models, and students will retain ownership of the data they create in Athena. Athena will access Canvas course information through a read-only connection governed by the student’s existing permissions, so it can only retrieve information the student is authorized to view. Instructure serves as a FERPA-designated school official when handling education records on behalf of participating institutions.
Launching through Instructure Foundry

Project Athena is the first project announced through Instructure Foundry, a new AI-native venture studio for building and bringing innovative products to market faster than Instructure's core roadmap can move. Foundry “disrupts from within,” exploring emerging markets and testing solutions at the pace of change, while maintaining the trust and stability of the core Instructure learning ecosystem. By launching products through Foundry, institutions can adopt breakthrough solutions now, with transparent expectations about what's proven and what will evolve. Every Foundry solution is built through direct collaboration with educators and institutions to address the specific challenges they face.

Instructure’s core product roadmap is built to support thousands of institutions with consistency, reliability, and scale. Foundry complements that work by enabling focused teams to respond more quickly to emerging needs, test new approaches with customers and advance promising solutions without disrupting the core learning ecosystem.

“We have spent more than a year developing Athena alongside our customers and will continue testing and refining it,” said Steve Daly, chief executive officer at Instructure. “By connecting directly to the courses students are taking, Athena will provide study support that reflects the material they are expected to understand. Foundry gives focused teams the flexibility to respond to emerging needs, incorporate feedback from educators and students, and bring solutions that improve outcomes to our customers more quickly.”

Institutions interested in testing Athena and providing feedback can learn more at https://www.studywithathena.com